Strawberry Sangria

8 cups fresh strawberries, halved and trimmed

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1 750 ml bottle white wine....such as Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio

1 cup sliced fresh strawberries

2 cups sparkling water, chilled

1 orange, sliced

To prepare syrup, in a large saucepan combine trimmed and halved strawberries, sugar and water.  Bring just to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Remove from heat.   Cover.   Cool to warm temperature.

Press mixture a little at a time through a mesh sieve, discard solids (you should have about 3 cups syrup) in a 2-quart pitcher stir together the syrup, wine and sliced strawberries.  

Cover and chill up to 24 hours.

Before serving stir in the sparkling water.  Serve in glasses with orange slices.

Makes 8...8 oz servings

Giving the Pepperwood Label a Swirl

Dinner for last Friday night was a simple affair. Grilled steak and leftover pasta drizzled with butter and garlic sauce with a little parmesan cheese on top. We rounded it off with a torn piece from a 5-grain baguette.

We also tried out a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon carrying the Pepperwood Grove label from Don Sebastiani & Sons.

Their website states we should get a whiff of raspberries, cedar, and subtle savory herbs. I’ll concur with the raspberries…..

Once you take a sip you should experience flavors such as rich blackberry cobbler, fresh raspberry jam, and caramel oak tones with integrated hints of basil and fresh figs. Oak tones yes…..the other items…..no. Perhaps my palette isn’t sophisticated enough.

I’ll keep trying though…….

A Little Wine Tasting.....

Recently we ventured over to our local Longhorn’s Steakhouse for a little family dinner. I was pleasantly surprised to find they had added a wine flight to their menu.

What is a wine flight? Wise Geek advises:

Wine flights, also sometimes referred to as tasting flights, are tastings of multiple wines, in order to get a feel for breadth or depth. Wine flights are usually intended for those new to the experience of tasting wine, or those who want to increase their understanding of a specific region, vintage, or varietal.

A wine flight can include anywhere from three or four wines to upwards of 50. The number of wines, the way they are presented, and the quality of the wines, usually depends on the context in which they are served. Wine flights may be offered in tasting bars, in restaurants, or at wineries or special events. They will often be based around a central theme, but may also just be a chance to try a number of different types of wine.

Longhorn’s flight had three wines along with a small place mat that described each wine. The flight included:

Red Rock Malbec…..”Malbec pairs great with grilled steaks. You will smell ripe cherries and boysenberries when you swirl the glass. The taste is a silky feeling with a smooth and fruit-flavored finish.” This particular wine is from California.

Red Diamond Merlot…..This wine was my personal favorite. I’m anxious to purchase my own bottle. The description read, “This wine is from Washington, a state becoming known for excellent merlot. It smells like sweet cherries and vanilla with flavors of black cherry, berry and plums when you sip. The finish is smooth with a medium body.”

The third choice was a Cabernet Sauvignon from the wineries of Chateau St. Jean out of California. “This is the boldest of the trio. Swirl and smell the aromas of dark fruits like blackberry and plums, then taste the rich fruit flavors and just a hint of the oak barrel where it was aged.”

I hope Longhorn’s continues to do this. It’s a great way to discover new wines to enjoy!

Wine Terminology: By the Bottle

Wine bottles larger than the .75-liter standard are mostly named for biblical kings and legends.

Magnum – equivalent to 2 bottles

Marie-Jeanne – equivalent to 3 bottles

Double Magnum or Jeroboam – evivalent to 4 bottles

Jeroboam or Rehoboam – equivalent to 6 bottles

Methuselah – 8 bottles

Salmanazar – 12 bottles

Balthazar – 16 bottles

Nebuchadnezzar – 20 bottles

Mechior or Solomon – 24 bottles

Sovereign – 34 bottles

Primat – 36 bottles

Wordless: Cycles Gladiator

Cycles Gadiator is the wine with the interesting label. We’ve tried the Cabernet Sauvignon a couple of times, and we like it.

It’s amazing to me the state of Alabama as banned Cycles Gladiator stating that the label is pornographic……see the link here.

The label is actually taken from a poster created in 1895 by G. Massias that celebrates the Golden Age of Cycling that reached its pinnacle in the same year.

The website for the winery can be found here

Other bloggers are participating in Wordless Wednesday. You can find them here

Wordless: Winking Owl Merlot

While we were in Asheville we were introduced to Winking Owl wine. It has an interesting label. You can find Winking Owl wines at ALDI….the discount grocery chain

Other bloggers are participating in Wordless Wednesday. You can find them here

A Toast to You!

I’m from that generation of folks where many of us made the weekly trek down to our local independent movie house to watch Rocky Horror Picture Show. I wasn’t one of the gung ho folks dressing as the characters or walking in armed with water guns or pieces of toast, but I did know all of the lines in the movie and the accompanying audience lines yelled back at the screen.

One of my favorite parts was the section where a toast is made and suddenly audience members would scream out, “A toast…..a toast!” Some folks would reach inside bags they had brought in with them and fling real pieces of toast at the screen.

I love a good wine…..I love a good toast among friends even more, so I got to thinking that I might want to look up some well worded toasts and have on hand to use during dinner parties, etc.

Snopes.com has a great article explaining away a myth involving how toasting evolved from folks clinking glasses in order to slosh a little of their drink into someone else’s afraid that someone in the group might be poisoned. It sounds good in theory, but…..it’s not the real reason.
Like most customs the real reasons evaporated years ago and might not ever be known, but one theory holds that the modern toast began as a way to honor the female sex, and it was often done with innuendo.

I love a play on words, so maybe that’s why I like the custom so much.

Here are some well worded toasts that don’t necessarily have anything to do with innuendo, but I like them:

1. May opinion never float on the waves of ignorance.

2. May we live to learn and learn to live well.

3. May we live in pleasure and die out of debt.

4. May we look forward with pleasure and backwards without remorse.

5. Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.

Helpful anniversary toasts can be found here with links in the sidebar to other toasting occasions.

Some toasting etiquette is given here.

Private Quarters Party

I hosted a Private Quarters party last night. I had been to a couple and decided to host my own to share the wonderful products with more people. Several ladies in my circle of friends are familiar with Private Quarters, so we keep having the parties to provide each other the opportunity to purchase items on our wish lists.

My theme for the evening was Tuscan…..When I looked up Tuscan foods I discovered the dishes included a lot of beans and meat….not what you generally think of when you think “Italy”, so I went off the menu a bit and had things that were simple and easy.

Mainly I opened up a bunch of packages and jars.

I purchased some Classico brand bruchetta, and I served with Garlic and Parmesan toasts I got from Publix. The bread slices were very hard, but after spreading the Bruchetta on and allowing it to sit for a bit it was very chewy.

I used a long skinny basket I've had for years to fashion a centerpiece. I used a tupperware container in one end to hold some crackers. I draped a cloth napkin over the tupperware to hide it. In the other side of the basket I used a couple of small silk ivey bushes.

I used my “Taste of Home” appetizer server/cake server to hold some fresh fruit and I mixed up some Ricotta Fruit Dip in my blender. Mix ½ cup low fat ricotta cheese; 4 oz. cream cheese, softened; 3 T. orange juice; 2 T. powdered sugar in the blender. Add mixture to one 6 oz. container vanilla low fat yogurt. Stir well and transfer to serving bowl. Serve with cut up fruit.

For the marinated mozzarella I took a pound and a half of cheese and sliced it into chunks. I mixed up 6-8 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 1 T. chopped basil ( I used dried, but the recipe called for fresh), ½ t. crushed red pepper, and ¼ t. ground sea salt. I put the cheese in my serving bowl and drizzled the olive oil mixture over it. Very pretty…very good.

The chickpea salad came from the Publix deli.

I also sliced up some salami and had some garlic and herb cheese spread for the crackers.

Lemon Glazed Poundcake from the Publix bakery.

We had tea and coffee to drink, and since the invites stated I would have wine (the Private Quarters representative did the invites for me) I picked up a bottle each of white and red suitable for light appetizer fare including fruits.

I purchased Beringer California collection. The red wine was actually a white merlot (2007). The white was a Moscato (2008) and the label states it is a floral-scented wine with the aroma of honeysuckle and fruity flavors.

It was not to be, however. I didn’t have any takers for a glass of wine, so hubby and I will enjoy it over the weekend as we finish off the leftovers.

Our tea....

Savory Spinach and Cheese bites from the freezer section....

....and some coffee all set up and ready to go if someone wanted it.

Here are some of the party guests: